Donald Glover: Renaissance & Freedom

What does it mean to be an artist?

Introduction

Artistic expression is both compression of and contention with time, along with the nature of reality. Nina Simone wrote that, “It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times we live.” Time is a popular theme in art. Time is an obsession for many individuals and artists, like Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino.

He has spent the greater portion of his life and career creating through different mediums to include writing for and starring in television and movies, as a singer and rapper, and comedian. He amassed a global audience stemming from an underground cult following that started in the mid to late 2000s. For Glover, time is more than an obsession. It is a unit. As a unit, he used it to signal when it was time to change direction in his career. As a unit, it was a way to input cultural contexts into his work. As a unit, it represented a value that is tied to both freedom and artistic renaissance.

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Donald Glover wants to be free to express himself in any way possible. Throughout his career, he tries different ways to communicate this. Along with freedom, he represents a modern day, “Renaissance Man”. This historical term was for artists and workers who had a wide variety of skills and…